AI in squad battles

I normally play on Legendary, but at the start of a new FC I usually drop down to World Class for a while so I can get used to the new gameplay. This year, however, I’m still playing on World Class because the AI in Squad Battles feels much more difficult than the AI in Career Mode.

The biggest issue is that the AI in Squad Battles seems noticeably harder even when playing on the exact same difficulty. I understand that I was playing against the highest-rated team, and obviously I expect that team to be difficult, but that’s not the main issue. You can genuinely feel that the AI itself is more difficult than Career Mode AI on World Class.

This reminds me of a previous FC where EA changed the Squad Battles AI with a patch and made it noticeably more difficult. However, this year the problem has been there from the beginning, and there hasn’t even been a gameplay patch that would explain why the Squad Battles AI feels this way.

Another major problem is how difficult it is to actually create chances in Squad Battles. My players seem completely clueless when I’m attacking. For example, I can be running down the wing and enter the box, expecting my teammate to make a forward run into the space in front of me. Instead, they will sometimes slow down, hold their position and just stand around the edge of the penalty area near the semicircle. It makes it incredibly difficult to create chances because the players around me aren’t making intelligent attacking runs.

The new curved runs also barely seem to work, passing can be extremely inconsistent, and defending corners is incredibly frustrating because the game often doesn’t switch me to the player I actually need.